As you can imagine, the hot topics of the weekend included Massa scoring his third consecutive victory in Turkey, the fact that McLaren has made progress in catching their rivals Ferrari and that Fisichella drove clean over Nakajima.
However, it seems that none of this is as exciting as Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Räikkönen, Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella doing publicity stunts before the Grand Prix got under way.
Ferrari S.p.A.
Fisichella was pictured walking down the pit lane in black tie, Räikkönen and Massa were pictured filling up a Formula 1 car (they turned and gave the Ferrari F1 the same treatment as the hatch shown in the photo) with what looked suspiciously like normal fuel from a Shell petrol pump and Hamilton was suspended in mid-air pretending to be the Greek God Apollo.
As usual Massa was wearing a perfect PR, PC grin whereas the Finn was looking about as pleased to be there as a fat kid at a salad seminar. However, the real talk of all these moneymaking schemes was Lewis, who looked decidedly uncomfortable as he was wired up, hauled up and left suspended in mid air pretending to be Apollo (acting is a pre-requisite of all Formula 1 drivers nowadays). Below him was the set of the ‘Fires of Anatolia’, a stage show depicting the Battle of Troy for a Vodafone promotion.
The fact that he was wearing his race overalls was a little awkward in context and he has hailed the stunt as “really not cool” when talking to British press on Saturday. “I just turned up and got on with what I’ve been told to do. Now I’ve seen the footage and it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.” Ah, the free thinking spirit of modern F1.
I fear that he may have flown, like Icarus, too close to the sun on this occasion.
I don’t think Senna would have let himself become Ron’s puppet like that… ;-)
At least Ferrari have the decency to engage their drivers in motorsport-related activities which makes a lot of sense (fueling comes with the job). But Maclaren’s flying Hamilton – that will keep me laughing until the end of the season!